The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called for more interactions between the agribusiness community in Ghana and his office.
The call was made when a cross section of the agribusiness stakeholders in Ghana met the President at the Jubilee House in Accra on Tuesday.
With agriculture contributing to 21% to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, and employing about 50% of the working population, President Akufo-Addo underscored the need for further consultations to accelerate the contribution of the sector.
The group included large scale farmers, aggregators, peasant farmers, exporters, food processors, vegetables growers, best farmer winners, fisherfolk, and seed producers.
Leading the interaction with the President, the coordinator of the agribusiness community in Ghana, Davies Korboe, commended govt for a wide variety of improvements including access to fertilizers and seeds.
(Planting for food and jobs has been….. In the area of maize,…)
Some members took turns to highlight some issues that can improve their fortunes and for Ghana. Some of the issues were the bagging of foreign rice into local rice bags, the provision of processing and storage facilities, and funding.
Minister of state in charge of agriculture, Dr Gyeile Nurah, for his part, reiterated the President’s directives for state agencies to procure locally sourced food items.
He said currently, 19,000 metric tonnes of seed are produced for the agric sector in Ghana, and announced a 37 million dollar package for the poultry industry to be activated in March this year.
President Akufo-Addo taking his turn, proposed a biannual interaction with the farmers.
He assured the group that he will consult with the farmers prior to appointment of the tree crop development authority.
President Akufo-Addo rallied the agribusiness community urging them to be ready for the free trade area in terms of credit.
He said now that Ghana’s vegetables can now reenter Europe, there’s a need to sustain and maintain that. He also touched on the standardisation of seeds and the tree crops viability especially teak.
